Bullock Confirms Run for President not the U.S. Senate

Governor Steve Bullock officially entered the race for President early Tuesday morning.

Bullock sat down with reporter Sally Mauk from Montana Public Radio to answer those who were upset that he wasn’t willing to displace Steve Daines in the U.S. Senate.

“Hopefully, they’ve seen in my decade of public service that I’ve always put Montanans’ best interests forward,” said Bullock. “I have a lot of respect for a lot of the Democrats in the Senate, and I also fundamentally believe there will be a lot of people who will jump into this race to bear Senator Daines in 2020. My experience is as an executive, not a legislator, and I’ve been able to have success in that arena, and that’s where I think my talents are best suited.”

Mauk pressed Bullock on his resistance to a Senate run.

“No, I wouldn’t,” he said flatly. “What Jon Tester’s been able to do in getting a dozen bills passed for veterans is really, really admirable from my perspective, but even before I decided to launch into the Presidential race I have pretty consistently said that I didn’t have much interest in serving as a Senator in Washington, D.C.”

Bullock then responded to a question from MPR’s Mauk about the Progressive mantra of ‘Medicare for All’.

“I haven’t been in support of that,” he said. “I agree with the aspiration, but I also fundamentally don’t think that we should start out of the gate saying ‘alright, 155 million people who have private insurance, they make think they’re paying too much’, but ultimately that may not necessarily be the best way to completely disrupt the whole system from the start.”

There is also criticism from Republicans that Montanans are footing the bill for Bullock's security team during his campaign trips, to the tune of nearly $300,000.